Ask the Bootmaker podcast with Jim Brainard
- early life in rodeo
- started tooling, making chaps
- mom taking boots to repair shop
- “I’ll never work in a place like that!”
- boot repairer subletting in the back of a western wear store
- learned by repairing
- learned from Dave “Hutch” Hutchings, but mostly repair, not making
- built up a repair business, retail footwear, etc.
- around 2000, sold off part to a partner, started working from home
- call Hutch back up
- “most humbling experience of my life”
- “the more I know, the less I know”
- couple trade shows a year
- Wichita Falls and Sheridan
- “I want a happy customer with a good pair of boots on their feet, but, man, I want others to learn this craft and keep this going, and to be a part of that and see it happen.”
- won big prize at Wichita Falls in 2020
- two-piece boots, top and foot
- “it didn’t win at all”
- did enter in master’s class
- not a master bootmaker
- just happened to be unique
- risky to enter them
- COVID, so perhaps fewer entries
- loves going outside the box and challening
- two-piece not unheard of
- more common: one piece down the front, one piece down the back
- seamless vamp, no side or back seams
- shaft is one piece but seamed along the inside
- alligator vamp
- last the vamp over the last, including over the cone and the top plane, then cut it out
- vamps lasted twice
- likes natural, basic colors
- made the boot just to try to make it
- “drop-in liner”
- has side seams
- front and back
- heel counter attached to liner
- finished lacing all the way up the top after delasting
- got the idea seeing a one-piece shoe from a Japanese artists at Sheridan
- documented creation process on Instagram
- wanted to a tree inlaid in alligator, but had little left
- tree in 2-3 pieces spliced
- “concept boot” a bit freer than customer work
- “whatever comes out”
- key: finding the tiles of the alligator
- award is a shiny buckle
- metal heel savers
- “to make noise” — “yeah, they do that well”
- “heel and toe taps”
- used to do lots of them, vinyl and metal
- people were saving money, making things last
- “I don’t like ’em.”
- affect balance and step
- little rock stuck underneath you
- might want on a really sharp toe if you really scuff toes, to avoid wearing into the welt
- “I really don’t like ’em on the heels”
- repair versus custom making
- resoling his own custom boots, then will go back on the last, otherwise like other repair jobs
- otherwise, jack lasts (anvils)
- can use anvil to help reform arch and shank
- repair teaches a lot about construction factors
- vibes have changed over the years
- from “total blackout”, wouldn’t talk, no trade secrets
- would call other shops, would have people hang up on him
- today: some old-school competitiveness, some trade secrets held back, but “everybody shares so well today”
- doesn’t see a lot of repair people anymore
- repair diminishing terribly
- some shops thriving: equestrian communities more than cities
- compete at the shows, but that’s for motivation to work harder
- “we’re all comrades in doing it”
- “healthy competition” [—Jeremiah]
- bought and sold parts of businesses
- bought a shoe repair business
- basic equipment
- curve-needle
- finisher
- sewing machine
- hand tools
- add-ons from there
- early or young, you work with what you got
- tried to add on machinery as he went
- find shops for sale: you can buy it all, but I’m not just selling one piece
- would buy a whole shop for one piece, sell the rest off
- became more over time
- keep the stuff alive
- some machinery uncommon
- Sutton and Landis mostly closed down
- Landis International, Gateway, Shoe Systems Plus
- machinery trade started working as a side business
- takes to trade shows
- advertise on the Internet
- keep ’em alive
- sadly, some have to go to the scrapyard, because no use for them
- good to have something else to do at the trade shows
- brings a trailer of machines
- rents boot spaces
- “and it’s fun”
- never bought an active business to keep running or move
- had two retail storefronts at once for a while
- now a home-based business
- no more room at home
- have 2 or 3 of every machine
- “kid in a candy store”
- has sold some for new ones and regretted it
- curve-needle stitchers all different, have their own quirks
- e.g. used to run with liquid wax to sew with cotton sinew
- Texas Traditions still uses cotton sinew
- would get crusted up
- clean it up, stops working
- “they do what they want”
- also sells new Cobra-brand machinery
- best service in the industry
- online forum with people reporting issues
- getting to know your machine versus getting to know machinery period
- 99% is operator error, even for him
- patience important in the business
- patience the biggest virtue?
- repair industry was a hustle: precision and speed and efficiency
- learning to sew multiple rows of topstitching takes patience
- trying to add speed before you’re ready ruins it
- almost as hard as raising children
- tooled leather factory versus custom
- more often embossed
- price makes some of the difference
- slightly bigger handmade shops have toolers
- started tooling as a kid, hasn’t tooled boot tops
- a niche
- doesn’t know a lot of makers who do, though they’re out there
- tooling out of prisons, e.g. Mexico
- can commission toolers
- some even commission inlay, stitching, overlays
- respect it
- some who stopped in repairs stop doing repair, esp. for others’ boots
- which socks
- come in with a boot sock
- midweight athletic socks
- cotton fine
- not a real thin dress sock
- not a real heavy wool winter sock
- feet swell and shrink, so does leather
- get measured in the boot socks
- no specific brand
- gets frustrated with brands, some aren’t good anymore
- can wear cowboy boots if you’re not a working cowboy
- “best footwear there is”
- comfortable, classic
- “westernwear has never gone away”
- “be with the rest of the class”
- softest leather worked with
- lambskin, but not a boot leather
- goatskin, some calf, kangaroo
- sayings that rub you the wrong way
- “the right way” attitude
- “it fits like a glove”
- “I have never bought a pair of gloves that fit.”
- Hutch, in older years: “there’s nothing I can do about it”
- beyond boots
- started from belts, wallets, chaps
- vets, pants, hats, mittens
- slings, scabbards, moccasins
- sheaths, holsters
- maybe three pairs of shoes
- purple monk straps, tore a pair apart and made a pattern
- guys hunting crocodiles in Florida, but don’t wear cowboy boots, made golf shoes
- take wife’s old purse apart, make pattern, make a new one
- won’t make some things
- “I’m gettin’ old and cranky”
- cover for seat on a saddle
- manufacturers out there doing that
- pattern making takes a lot of time
- competing with CAD and laser cutters
- time and cost considerations
- full welt versus pegs, conversions
- check heel height first
- sometimes bring in daddy’s boots, make them fit me?
- can sometimes relast from roper to higher heel
- pegging doesn’t make it better
- nails rust out, not the way cowboy boot makers do it
- have to change the insole
- pricey process
- favorite details
- whatever the customer wants
- “everything’s a detail when making it”
- favorite: don’t mess up the details
- Denver Broncos inlay “concept boot”
- wants inlays to skive down very flat
- “in the ditch” sewing on the inside of some inlays
- sewing inlay really close to the edge
- ==used Horween football leather for vamp, but lasting took the pebble out of it==
- Jim thanked Jeremiah for taking time to showcase bootmakers
- rarely updates his website